What were two problems Lincoln faced in emancipation?

Answer 1

Are we talking in general, or regarding the Emancipationproclamation? Lincoln was a long proponent of Emancipation, however he did not believe that it could be accomplished in his lifetime. Lincoln campaigned strongly for gradual compensated emancipation which would pay slave owners to emancipate their slaves. However, at that point in time, congress was not justified in enacting legislation which affected slavery as slaves were considered property which was protected under the constitution. In addition, many people argued against the price that it would cost in order to pay to free the slaves, saying either that the government could not afford to front the money, or that it was not in the government's jurisdiction to spend money in such a way. Lincoln actually rebuked two of his generals on two separate occasions for putting forth emancipation proclamations before he released his official proclamation.In a letter to Orville H. Browning Lincoln writes "Can it be pretended that it is any longer the government of Constitution and laws, - wherein a General, or a President, may make permanent rules of property by proclamation?"http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Special:Wysiwyg?tid=wysiwyg#_ftn1 It was only later that Lincoln considered himself able to write legislation regarding this and in that case he phrased it as an act of war which as commander in chief he was allowed to pass. In addition to this problem was the complication that while the proclamation applied only to those in rebellion against the Union and not to those areas which were still loyal to the union, it is in these places that any Union laws were most difficult to enforce. It was only possible to enforce the law when Union troops were able to access these regions. Regardless of either of the previous issue was the problem of what to do with the slaves when they were liberated. Lincoln himself said during the Lincoln Douglas debates that he did not believe that Slaves were the equal of white citizens. For many years Lincoln was a supporter of colonization, where freed slaves would be sent to colonies in Africa and South America resolving the equality problem, however this idea had proven disasterous, and late in his career Lincoln actually sent ships to the colonies to retrieve any survivors who wished to return to the States. At this point in time Lincoln begins refering to the freed slaves as citizens and wrote to the governer of Louisiana to grant former slaves, particularly those who fought for the nation, the right to vote.
---- http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Special:Wysiwyg?tid=wysiwyg#_ftnref1 Abraham Lincoln. "Letter to Orville H. Browning, Sept. 22d 1861" in Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Writings 1859-1865: Speeches, Letters, and Miscellaneous Writings Presidential Messages and Proclamations, Ed. Don E. Fehrenbacher (New York: The Library of America, 1989), 269